These photos were taken earlier this year in the village of Belen in Iquitos, Peru. The entire village is flooded for several months each year by the nearby Amazon river. The only way to get around is by boat so even the children learn to navigate and paddle in small canoes from an early age.

Two young girls paddle a canoe in the flooded village of Belen in Iquitos, Peru.

Our local guide manoeuvred us around in a motorboat for a couple of hours exploring the streets which at that time of the year become waterways. The area is fascinating, and our journey through it gave us a brief insight into life there.

Around every corner were amazing photo opportunities, with the local people using the river to work, travel and play. Children would sit selling food and produce to passing boats, Men would offer taxi boat services or fish, and the Women would wash the family clothes in the river. Some 65,000 people live in the Village of Belen on either moored floating houses or houses on stilts. It is a very poor neighbourhood with many of the people living in impoverished conditions. Yet those we encountered seemed genuinely happy: laughing, smiling, and greeting us as we passed by. (Click through the images below)

A young boy sells bananas in the flooded village of Belen in Iquitos, Peru.

Iquitos Child portrait by Geraint Rowland Photography.

Iquitos street photography by Geraint Rowland.

Belen Market, Iquitos Peru (Photo Essay for the First Issue of Dezine Magazine)

Black and child portrait taken in the Amazon region of Peru.

Black and white candid family portrait in Iquitos, Peru.

I took all the photos candidly and found that converting them to black and white gave them more emotion. For more information on Dezine go to: https://issuu.com/dezinemagazine.